‘So far this calendar year the local sharemarket has pretty much gone nowhere. After 10 interesting months, the benchmark S&P/ASX 200 Index closed at 5283.8 on Friday, around 12 points below where it closed on the last day of trading in 2015.’

‘Clearly there’s not much to celebrate as the closely watched index fell 2 per cent in 2015 after rising just 1 per cent in 2014. With one trading session remaining, the index is down almost 3 per cent in October, a month that in the past has seen more than its fair share of carnage. Of course those investors who bought earlier this year when the index reached as high as 5611 are still licking their wounds, while the clever types who snapped up shares when the market dipped to 4706 have made some money. ‘

‘But what about the next two months? Well, it’s now that investing gets that little bit harder.’